The present invention relates to concealable, breast milk collection and storage devices for lactating mothers.
Natural breastfeeding infants, widely accepted as the best way to nurture an infant, often causes practical limitations particularly to working mothers or otherwise active mothers who are often in public spaces and are unable to immediately locate a private or discrete location where they can comfortably feed their infant or collect the breast milk for a later use. Recognizing this problem, the prior art presents many varied attempts to provide devices that enable a lactating mother to collect or prevent lactation.
Broadly, the state-of-the-art categorizes into three classifications including concealed devices for collection or storage, non-concealable pumping and storing apparatuses, and concealed lactation prevention devices.
Representative of the first class of concealed devices, devices worn similar to undergarments, includes the concealed apparatus for hands free breast milk pumping and storage of Prentiss disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,440,100 issued on 27 Aug. 2002. Prentiss further teaches an external conduit for transferring expelled breast milk from the nipple to a remote reservoir located outside the brassiere. The Prentiss apparatus includes a low-profile nipple cap held in place beneath a support brassier. This apparatus permits concealed, hands-free breast pumping in a public environment without any remarkable change in the user's visible appearance. Milk is expressed from the breasts through the nipple cap, which links to a remote reservoir via a milk storage conduit. A vacuum is applied to the storage reservoir by an electronic or manual pump. One limitation of the Prentiss apparatus includes the necessity of an external or remote reservoir bag. Further, the Prentiss apparatus requires a remote or external pump device to extract the milk. The additional, remote or external pump and bag destroy the privacy or operation discretion desired by many mothers, requiring them to find a more private or less-public venue to attend to the collection of breast milk. Thus, there remains a need for a device that operates when completely concealed, and such a device should further eliminate the extra equipment as taught by Prentiss.
The second category, non-concealable pumping and storing apparatuses, is well represented in the prior art and typically comprise a funnel-like device adapted to fit over the nipple and a portion of a female breast, a conduit member linking the funnel and directing milk to a collection device. Typically, the collection device is a bag. A representative example of the prior art includes a breast milk pump support harness disclosed by Fields in U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,996 issued on 19 Jun. 2001. Fields describes a support harness to be worn by a nursing mother that includes two detachable collection bottle support assemblies and a brassiere assembly. Examples of bags and collection funnels include a disposable sterile bag disclosed by Lafond in U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,082 issued on 11 Dec. 2001. Lafond describes a disposable plastic bag with a liquid receiving chamber having a tear-off strip and closure member. Limitations of this classification of these non-concealable pumping and storing apparatuses include their inability to be concealed beneath outer garments, require remote pumping devices, and are inoperable to discretely collect breast milk. Thus, there remains a need for a collection system that can easily be worn under outer garments, yet retain a normal appearance for the user when worn. Such a device should include a collection means that does not require a remote or external pump apparatus.
Attempts to both conceal and prevent lactation include devices described by Morrissey et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,231 issued on 2 Jul. 1996 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,714 issued on 31 Mar. 1998 include an apparatus having an outer surface and an inner surface shaped to conform substantially to a human female breast and having a protrusion with a substantially flat, nipple-contacting surface which extends away from the support and positions to align substantially with and contact a nipple, and thus preventing lactation when placed over the breast. The Morrissey device, however, does not teach or disclose any means for collecting breast milk, and attempts to prevent lactation. This device does not adequately address the need for a concealed collection device.
The prior-art is silent on a device or method to collect a small amount (up to about four ounces) of milk that leaks from the non-nursing side during breastfeeding. In fact, the prior art teaches that the non-nursing side be blocked, or that milk be absorbed (i.e., nursing pads), or pumped. Thus, there remains a need for a concealable device that collects milk that leaks from the non-nursing side during breastfeeding and such a collection device should be concealable and not require external storage container or pump apparatus. To aid concealment under a brassiere, such a device should contour to the natural shape of the female breast, and to further enhance concealment and comfort during use, such a device should be completely encapsulated by a single cup of the brassiere. Further, the device should be easy to wear with a supportive brassiere, provide a normal appearance when viewed under clothing, provide a means for collecting milk that can be reused, easily cleaned, and seal to retain the milk for later use, while simultaneously enabling a mother to breast feed from one breast. A much simpler device, one that does not require conduits to large-volume storage bags, does not require external pumping, does not require concealment of external apparatus, us very much needed.